Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.

Practical courses mimic experimental research and may generate valuable data. Yet, data that is generated by students during a course is often lost as there is no centrally organized collection and storage of the data. The loss of data prevents its reuse. To provide access to these data, I present a...

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Main Author: Joachim Goedhart
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-02-01
Series:PLoS Computational Biology
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011836&type=printable
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author Joachim Goedhart
author_facet Joachim Goedhart
author_sort Joachim Goedhart
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description Practical courses mimic experimental research and may generate valuable data. Yet, data that is generated by students during a course is often lost as there is no centrally organized collection and storage of the data. The loss of data prevents its reuse. To provide access to these data, I present an approach that I call studentsourcing. It collects, aggregates, and reuses data that is generated by students in a practical course on cell biology. The course runs annually, and I have recorded the data that was generated by >100 students over 3 years. Two use cases illustrate how the data can be aggregated and reused either for the scientific record or for teaching. As the data is obtained by different students, in different groups, over different years, it is an excellent opportunity to discuss experimental design and modern data visualization methods such as the superplot. The first use case demonstrates how the data can be presented as an online, interactive dashboard, providing real-time data of the measurements. The second use case shows how central data storage provides a unique opportunity to get precise quantitative data due to the large sample size. Both use cases illustrate how data can be effectively aggregated and reused.
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spelling doaj.art-576d84acbfb74712bd6314208d2175c92024-02-24T05:31:19ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582024-02-01202e101183610.1371/journal.pcbi.1011836Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.Joachim GoedhartPractical courses mimic experimental research and may generate valuable data. Yet, data that is generated by students during a course is often lost as there is no centrally organized collection and storage of the data. The loss of data prevents its reuse. To provide access to these data, I present an approach that I call studentsourcing. It collects, aggregates, and reuses data that is generated by students in a practical course on cell biology. The course runs annually, and I have recorded the data that was generated by >100 students over 3 years. Two use cases illustrate how the data can be aggregated and reused either for the scientific record or for teaching. As the data is obtained by different students, in different groups, over different years, it is an excellent opportunity to discuss experimental design and modern data visualization methods such as the superplot. The first use case demonstrates how the data can be presented as an online, interactive dashboard, providing real-time data of the measurements. The second use case shows how central data storage provides a unique opportunity to get precise quantitative data due to the large sample size. Both use cases illustrate how data can be effectively aggregated and reused.https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011836&type=printable
spellingShingle Joachim Goedhart
Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
PLoS Computational Biology
title Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
title_full Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
title_fullStr Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
title_full_unstemmed Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
title_short Studentsourcing-Aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course.
title_sort studentsourcing aggregating and reusing data from a practical cell biology course
url https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011836&type=printable
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